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Game of Thrones, Season 4 (USA, 2014)

Created by: David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. [DISCLAIMER: This post, like Killing Them Softly, is the result of a time warp, as it is coming to you from the final day of 2014 instead of the period when I actually saw it. Having steamrolled through all four seasons of this show, and having written all of the posts back to back, this one must have gotten pulled under the steamroller, and I didn’t notice until I was reviewing all the posts for my Anno Domini 2014 list. This has happened before, and I’ve just said “Oh well, that one doesn’t get a review” (sorry, Magical Mystery Tour), but the completist in me knows that there will be more seasons of this show, and if this one is missing, it’s going to drive me madder than a…something from Game of Thrones. So then, the only thing to do is dust off this post and complete it. Here’s what was already written:]

Now that I’m caught up, I can say that a lot of what peaked my interest in the first season has yet to come to pass: Daenerys is still fucking around in Essos, and the whole story in the North, the imminent march of zombie warriors and Wildlings, is still dragging on and on and on. And winter still fucking hasn’t come!

[And here’s what I have to add:]

But overall, it was a very satisfying season: that huge battle on the wall sticks out in my memory, the giants were fucking great, scary as hell, and it’s great to see Liam Cunningham on the screen, although there was barely anything with Ciarán Hinds. And I can’t believe that Jon Snow’s lady friend got shot with an arrow! They were going to live happily ever after! He was going to be king and she would be queen! That was my hope anyway, but now she’s dead. All the stuff with Tyrion was pretty satisfying too, even though he had his little heart put through the wringer, it was so damn satisfying to see him square things up with his dad, even if it meant shooting him on the john—an undignified end for the old fucker. I almost forgot the most satisfying thing this season—that little fucker Joffrey finally bit the dust, so that was a great moment of justice in this setting that doesn’t give a lot of glimmers of hope, mostly just devastating blows. And then shortly after, the “Mountain and the Viper” episode, which was almost as devastating as the Red Wedding last season. Also, I was sad to see the Hound go, but it’s pretty great watching Arya get tougher and tougher, even if it means that she’s basically becoming a psychopath. As I was reading the articles on Slate and Atlantic and everywhere else, the consensus seems to be similar to my thoughts—that the whole storyline with Bran Stark just about jumped the shark, and that, as stated above, Daenerys is still fucking around in Essos, the zombies in the north are nowhere to be seen, and winter still hasn’t fucking come. I’m just saying, Game of Thrones, you’re starting to show your stitching a bit, you’re starting to drop the illusion of a carefully orchestrated, labyrinthine plot, and starting to look like what you are: a show that’s doomed from the get-go to be forever at the whim of the books, because the story hasn’t been finished yet, and it’s generally a terrible, terrible idea to start a story that you don’t know how to finish. But hey, even if the whole thing melts down, I’ll be along for the ride.